MO Amazing!!!

Yesterday I had a most amazing adventure. A bunch of my family members all signed up (and even showed up) to run the Top of Utah half marathon. It started up Blacksmith Fork Canyon and we ran into Providence....all 13.1 miles of it. It was really fun. My goal was to get around 2 hours (and I came in at 2 hours 17 minutes). I would have liked to have been 5 minutes faster, but it's all good. I had never run more than 10 miles before, so I was definitely nervous about miles 11, 12 and 13.

Thankfully, a sweet friend of mine found me at my lowest point and ran with me for a while. It was just the push I needed. (thanks Janelle!) And it all ended well. We all made it across the finish line, and I think that we all actually want to do it again.

Since we were running as a family, we decided to sport a family shirt. We found these neon green shirts that just couldn't be missed! It was really easy to spot each other! And since we are all from the Moser family, we had our shirts printed with the 'MO' theme. We each picked a word that we felt like would push us, or that described us. And here are the results.

Shawn....MO Alive

Nicky....Mo Determined

Me....Mo Strong

Mandi....Mo Mighty

Robin....Mo Sassy

Brittany...Mo Smokin

This is Mandi and I at the finish line. I want to be as fast as her some day.

This is my sister, Robin. She actually has 5 GRANDCHILDREN. Seriously!

And she kicked butt!

This is Brittany. She was the only other first timer (other than me). And she did great!

Here's Nicky. I think it was just last year that she came to cheer Mandi on at this very race, and dreamed of doing it herself one day. I don't know if she had ever really run at all since high school. And here she is!!!

This is my brother, Shawn. Unless you know him, you'll never understand how much progress he has made in the last year and a half! Wow!!!

And do you even know how happy I was to see these people at the finish line? Who could ask for a better cheering section!? I think that maybe they were proud of me. But I'm proud of them every single day.

Just on a side note....Jordan....we would LOVE it if we could work out a middle ground run sometime that we could all do! Maybe Southern Utah??? We missed you, little bro!

And as another side note....I just looked at the official times and places....I placed 1230th out of the 2012 people who showed up to run! That's not very encouraging. Oh well. Maybe next time I can place somewhere in the hundrends.....

Summer...Take 1

What a crazy, insane, upside down summer! It seems like we got off to such a late start with Mother Nature, but when she decided to cooperate...we've just been trying to keep up. We know how long and cold winter can be, so we're trying to soak up enough sunshine to pull us through.

It may take a couple of posts to catch up, but eventually, I think I may get there.

We kicked off our summer with a short camping trip up to Stanley Lake. And holy cow, Mom and Dad, how did we never see the Sawtooths in all of our years living in Idaho? They are somethin else, and I love them. A lot. Stanley Lake was fantastic. I think we'll go back next year. And the year after that.

Other than the fact that Myah forgot her bag and had NO clothes, things went rather smoothly. We had to shop the great variety of stores (which consists of a couple small tourist gift shops) in Stanley to find her at least one change of clothes.

Redfish Lake was pretty great too.

We had to stop and check out Mount Borah on the way. We really want to climb it soon. Skyler's hair is almost as big as Mount Borah.

Check out those Sawtooths! Pretty, eh?

Dirty faces are completely acceptable while camping. And they are even pretty cute.

Skyler told us that he would never ask for anything again as long as he lives if we would just let him pour lighter fluid on the wooden sword they made so he could have a burning torch. And I thought he was getting all grown up!

Derrick and Zac are the only completely insane people in our family. They just have to swim out into any and every lake that we come across. That included these FREEZING cold mountain lakes (Alturus Lake and another I can't remember the name of). It was so cold, I couldn't even stand to get out of the car. I came out just long enough to take their picture.

I think that even Derrick thought it was a little chilly!

Redfish Lake wasn't too cold. Tannon and Myah even took the plunge.

And why is this underlining? I haven't a clue.

All in all, it was a great time! Definitely loving the Idaho summer!

Happy Birthday Sweet Magoo!

Myah had her birthday a couple of weeks ago.  And since I tend to run a couple weeks behind (at least) on blogging, I'll post a couple pictures now.

So here's the deal.  I'm a pretty ok cook.  My kids can't complain.  We certainly don't go hungry around here.  But.....I must admit that I have struggled in the birthday cake department.  Over the years, we've had some cakes where we just 'have to use our imaginations'.  Good thing kids have good imaginations.  I just always tend to get this great big idea in my head, and it never seems to work out.  So although this is a bit embarrassing, I'm going to share anyways.....

Myah wanted strawberry shortcake for her birthday.  Derrick doesn't really like strawberry shortcake.  So I thought I'd plant in her mind (like good mothers do), that she wanted this other strawberry cake that is so delicious!  It's a white cake with a cream cheese topping, and then topped with strawberries and danish dessert.  Normally, I would make it in a cake pan, but I thought I'd get fancy.  I mean, Myah really is that special.  So I decided to make a double layer cake, with cream cheese filling and the strawberries and danish on top.  It was looking pretty good, until I tried to top it off with the strawberry mixture.  Let's just say that the cake lacked integrity.  That the foundation wasn't strong enough. (Hmmm, sounds like a family home evening lesson just waiting to happen).   And just like the foolish man's house that was built upon the sand......The cake didn't survive.  I wasn't happy.  It took me half the day to put together this dumb cake.

Here's the best part though.  Myah LOVED it.  She was so excited to have her very own 'Volcano

Cake'!  And that is why Miss Magoo is so AWESOME!!!

So happy belated birthday little girl!  I don't know quite where the last 6 years have gone, but it has been such a HUGE blessing to have a sweet daughter around to enjoy life with!